Week 8 Discussion

Week 8 Discussion

1.  What are some ways you can use assessment to engage students? Why is this important? 

2.  What is meant by the term, “data to drive instruction”

3  You teach in a school where the weight scale for assignments is 60% for tests, quizzes, and projects and 40% for classroom and homework. How would you assign assignments to your students to ensure that they are being assessed properly and you can assist students who are not good test takers? Explain

Assessment in Education

Assessment is a continuous process in which teachers use to evaluate the progress of a student. The thought of an assessment is stressful to students but is a very necessary process that is used to monitor how the students perform in different areas. It should be well thought out by the teachers such that when they are going through the curriculum they already know which areas to assess. Assessment can be used in a way that students enjoy and at the same time equip them with practical skills for instance in sciences or engineering. I could implement a way in which the concepts I use are cross cutting and focus on discipline. This is crucial since the strength of students are not necessarily in academic work, some could have talents that need to be nurtured at a young age and others whose strengths are in co-curricular activities.

Data driven instructions refers to use of information describing the characteristics of students in each class and the information is later used to find the best way in which teaching can be improved. In each and every class, the abilities of students vary, how they understand concepts varies and they also have unique needs (Gardner,2012). The information collected is used to direct teachers in the best way to teach their students and also improve the curriculum. This process involves three key steps, one, the collection of data through evaluating tests and how students answer assignments. Through observing how the students interact in class and their individual personalities. Two, analyzing the data through concentrating on the essential information that will help come up with sane conclusions for better plans for teaching. This can be done by looking for patterns and how they came to be. Three, through congratulating the class after the successful completion of a topic or creating time to pitch ideas to the class on how best you could improve teaching.

The assignments I would assign would solely be relevant to what my students have learnt and those that prompt them to study for what I am to teach next. The projects that I assign them would be those that help them deal with situations that happen in real-life (Christenson,2012). This way, they develop skills that they can use outside school. Problem based learning is one of the ways I would use to help students apply cases that happen in real life then encourage them to work in groups and share ideas to solve the problems. The assignments would also require them to analyze the researched information and interpret the information in different ways other than written documents. In conclusion, I would ensure the assignments assess the individual student, for instance, giving them an opportunity to present the assignment they researched about and assessing how well can they answer the questions posed at them.

Reference

Christenson, S. L., Reschly, A. L., & Wylie, C. (Eds.). (2012). Handbook of research on student engagement. Springer Science & Business Media.

Gardner, J. (Ed.). (2012). Assessment and learning. Sage.